Roosevelt Island's iDig2Learn Celebrating 10 Year Anniversary With Two Exciting Upcoming Webinars, March 31 Designing Your Garden To Attract Pollinators And April 7 Creating Urban Habitats:Roosevelt Island As An Ecosystem - Register Now, Space Limited

Roosevelt Island resident and iDig2Learn founder Christina Delfico reports:

iDig2Learn kicks off spring with a star studded free webinar, Design your Garden to Attract Pollinators, hosted by Ursula Chanse of the New York Botanical Garden and Chrissy Word of the City Parks Foundation. 

20 years ago they teamed up to see if there were enough floral resources in the Bronx for the Monarch butterfly and found out there wasn't. Their answer involved creating the Butterfly Project NYC. Together with neighbors they built out Monarch butterfly corridors by planting to attract pollinators and to date they have given away over 75,000 free native plants to the community. 

iDig2Learn is thrilled to celebrate our 10th anniversary with this special free webinar Thursday, March 31st at noon. RSVP a must, space is limited - email "Pollinators" to idig2learn@gmail.com to secure your spot and get the Zoom link. Don't miss this one.

Ursula Chanse is the Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture at The New York Botanical Garden. Since 2005, she has managed Bronx Green-Up, the community gardening outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden. This program provides horticulture education, training, and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools, and community organizations. Ursula’s background includes ecological horticulture, public health, community education, organizing and advocacy work.

Chrissy Word is Director of Education at City Parks Foundation and oversees the development of dynamic STEM programs for youth in the most underserved neighborhoods of NYC: Green Girls, Coastal Classroom, Learning Gardens, Seeds to Trees and Career/College Readiness for high school interns. Chrissy has 20 years of experience and training in student centered pedagogy, child development and experiential learning. She has developed and implemented a number of successful citizen science projects for high school youth on the Bronx River and as co-founder of Butterfly Project NYC, a grassroots conservation organization, she initiated a pollinator curriculum guide for NYC teachers. 

As previously reported, Chrissy Ward visited Roosevelt Island last October and together with Ms Delfico and Emily Fano of the National Wildlife Federation spoke about the mission of the NYC Pollinator Group at the Roosevelt Island Community Garden.
 

Click here for more information on the NYC Pollinators visit to Roosevelt Island last October. 

Email iDig2Learn@gmail.com to get the Zoom link for the Pollinators webinar.

Ms Delfico adds:

Also, we have  a very exciting joint venture - Creating Urban Habitats: Roosevelt Island as an Ecosystem webinar featuring Rebecca McMackin of Brooklyn Bridge Park on April 7 at 6:30pm hosted by RIGC (Community Garden), iDig2Learn, Cornell Tech, and RIOC.

Thu, April 7, 2022 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT 

Did you know Brooklyn Bridge Park was a parking lot before it was transformed into meadows and wetlands for people and pollinators? 

RSVP to the Eventbrite link to tune in on 4/7 evening to find out more from Rebecca McMackin, the director of horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

Roosevelt Island Lecture on Creating Urban Habitats 

Creating Urban Landscapes: stunningly beautiful gardens can also contain thriving wildlife habitat in the heart of an urban setting. 

A free virtual lecture sponsored by RI Community Garden in partnership with iDig2Learn, Cornell Tech, and Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation. 

 Rebecca McMackin is an “ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. ”She has spent the last decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she manages 85 acres of diverse parkland organically and with an eye towards habitat creation for birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms. Rebecca lectures and writes about landscape management, pollination ecology, and designs amazing gardens. 

Urban residents interested in the green spaces around you and professionals working in parks, landscape, or building management are invited to hear more about how: 

• Ecologically managed, beautiful urban spaces provide quiet for nesting birds, host plants for butterflies, pollen for bees, and life-restoring moments for humans.  
• Creating and curating city spaces as ever-changing natural ecosystems aligns well with art, sports, and daily community life.

Watch this video of Ms McMackin speaking on developing a thriving ecosystem at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Congrats to iDig2Learn on their 10 year anniversary!